HARTFORD, Conn. -
After battling through two scoreless periods, UMass came up short in the third, falling to UConn, 2-1, in the consolation game of the UConn Hockey Classic on Monday afternoon at the XL Center. Following the setback, the Minutemen sit a 6-13-3 overall, while the Huskies improve to 7-6-2.

Redshirt-junior Steven Guzzo provided the lone UMass goal, his first of the season and second point of the weekend. Junior Emerson Auvenshine set up the tally for his second point of the tournament, as well. Colin Shea had the secondary helper, his seventh of the season.

Just 26 seconds into the final stanza, UConn broke up the scoreless deadlock. Jacob Poe and Joey Ferriss found Ryan Tyson alone in front to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead.

Guzzo leveled the score at one midway through the frame. After Auvenshine carried the puck into the zone following an outlet pass from Shea and drove towards the net, Guzzo buried a rebound from the slot at the 9:12 mark.

However, UConn converted on its final power play chance of the day. Billy Latta fired a one-timer through traffic from Jordan Sims and Joona Kunnas at 14:56.

The Minutemen out-shot the Huskies, 38-27 in the contest, but Robby Nichols turned aside 37 of those attempts. Junior Steve Mastalerz finished with 25 stops in net for UMass. The Huskies went 1-for-3 on the power play, while the Minutemen were 0-for-3.

UMass returns to action next Saturday, Jan. 4, when the squad will travel to Northeastern for a non-conference tilt at 7 p.m.